Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story
(on a postcard)

Nice Things Said AboutUsSam Lipsyte:
"Michael Kimball never ceases to astonish. He is a hero of
contemporary American literature."
Observer:
“Powerful and moving ... breathless”
El Mercurio:
“First, Camus showed us the human condition. Now Kimball
has.”
Time Out London:
“A deep love between an ageing husband and wife is given a
heartbreaking voice ... tender and poignant”
El País:“Haunting and awesome ... beautiful and
intense ... This is a novel from a great talent.”
El Placer de la Lectura:
“A monument to love”
The Glasgow Herald:
“Be warned: this book has the power to make
even the most hard-hearted of readers shed a tear. ...
Kimball has broken into new territory: Us is one
of the most graphic depictions of illness and loss I have
ever read.”
Letras Libres:
Michael Kimball "already delivers the
future of the novel ... [He is] one of the authentic
innovators in contemporary fiction."
Blake Butler:
“There are two books I can remember that ever made me
physically cry. There were the rape scenes in Saramago’s
Blindness, and there was nearly every chapter of
Michael Kimball’s [Us]. While the first hurt
because it was so brutal, Kimball’s was a softer kind of
invocation—as I read it in a bathtub, I could not shake the
feeling of being held, as if somehow the words had
interlaced my skin. This is the essence of the magic
Michael Kimball holds—his sentences come on so taut, so
right there, and yet somehow so calming, it’s as if you are
being visited by some lighted presence.”
El Razón:
“Bathed in tenderness ... touching and breathtaking ... one
of the most moving, heartbreaking, and sad novels of
contemporary American fiction. It is essential.”
Telegraph and Argus:
“This is the saddest book I have ever read and one of the
most beautiful ... One can’t help being aware of his grief
and the great love he feels for his dying wife. It will
make you cry and break your heart but this is one book you
must read.”

Nate Jackson was born in Mishawaka, Indiana on January 17th, 1981 (less than 24 hours after his wife was born). School bored Nate and he was often sent to the principal's office. In 5th grade, he got caught hiding under his teacher’s desk, which resulted in him spending a week’s worth of recesses under the principal’s desk. Disliking school led to poor grades, which led school counselors to think him simple-minded, which led to 3 days of intense scrutiny and testing by a child psychologist, which led to the discovery that Nate could perform at an 11th-grade level. That was when he was in 7th grade, the same year Nate’s parents got divorced and he lashed out even more in school. He was always a kid who loved to blow things up. Nate skipped 8th grade and was sent to a yeshiva in Chicago. He would never live with his parents again, only seeing them for brief summer visits and school vacations. But Nate hated living in a dorm and 9th grade was a disaster. After a couple suspensions, he was asked to not return and went to live in Cleveland with his uncle. He attended a smaller yeshiva where he could get more personal attention, but, after a year, his uncle moved away. Nate lived his last two years of high school with the Falk family, where Mr. Falk taught him how to play guitar, which Nate learned, along with how to write songs. It became his art. After high school, Nate moved to Israel to study at a rabbinical college, but quit after 1 ½ years, and became a sniper for the Israeli army. Of course, given previous discipline problems, Nate hated the army. He stopped being religious based on his newly-heightened self-awareness. After he got out of the army, he denounced violence and became a peace protester in the West Bank and Gaza. After a year of that, Nate returned to the US to attend Indiana University. His last semester at IU, Nate met his future wife, Micah Ling, and, after a few months of her asking him for a ride on his motorcycle, he said yes. It's been love ever since. Last year, they moved to Nashville so Nate could play music, but they missed the easy Indiana life and moved back to Bloomington. As an adult, Nate has grown close to his parents again and he loves them dearly. He also loves his life so far. Nate still plays music every single day, usually after he wakes up—because his voice is raw and his fingers are calm. His time with Micah and their bashful dog Bourbon has sugarcoated his sour memories and rounded his rough edges. They've been together for 4 years and got married on October 5th in a park near their house. Nate loves Micah more than anything and he will live every adventure with her for the rest of his life.